Single best part of your commute?
 

Ok, so a while back, I asked everyone what the worst part of their commute was. Apparently, 90% of you having nothing but rainbows and merino wool kittens on your route.

But what I want to know now is the single best part of your commute. Sure, you may love the whole thing, but is there a single turn or quarter mile stretch of road or a fun descent that makes you grin ear to ear every time, rain or shine?

My route recently changed due to a move. The busiest road I "cross" is 360. The North Texas folks will know what I'm talking about. When I first moved to Grand Prairie, I was working in North Fort Worth and had to take 360 there and back on the motorcycle. I was on the bad end of the rush hour situation. It was guaranteed stop and go going north bound in the morning and south bound in the evening.

My old route went underneath it and I had to contend with a little cross traffic from the access roads. On my new route, there is a short bridge going over the freeway with residential areas on either side. This means just a stop sign and very little traffic. And as I pass over the bridge on my bike cruising to school, I get to look down on the gridlock and smile. :D Gets me every damn time.

The best part of my commute is the first 20 minutes of my day after I arrive at the office and change for work. I'm fresh, awake and happy. The ride itself is pretty dull...neighborhood to edge of town, low-traffic frontage road that's totally exposed to wind, intersection by a big-box store, then a quick ride down a 9%grade to the office. On the way back, my favorite part is knowing that by the time I get to the top of the hill I'll be feeling warm and ready to go the rest of the way home.

I commute through downtown Los Angeles, and I'd have to say that the best part of my commute is the 1 mile stretch up Figueroa Blvd past the Staples Center, (home of the LA Lakers, Clippers, and Kings), to the subway station at 7th and Figueroa. You have to share the lane with buses, but there is an electricity in the air in being downtown, riding past the landmarks that most just see on television, and passing traffic as it sits hopelessly stalled in gridlock. As I ride home at night, lights in the form of angels have been put in all the trees that line both sides of Figueroa for the holiday season. Most of you who commute down quiet country roads will think I'm nuts, but parts of the city can be beautiful.

the 15 minutes along the Trinity River in the morning, around sunrise.

I took this last week. Note the Great Blue Heron hen in the water.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6886125/trinity.JPG

There's a new bike/ped bridge along the MUP over the busiest street I have to cross. I used to take a street route which was fun and safe but I'd sometimes have to wait a long time at this one intersection, now I have ZERO stoplights thanks to this bridge and my new route that follows the MUP instead of the street. And it's fun to look down on all the slow moving traffic below too.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_hSZo5vjiPmQ/TH...0/P8280016.JPG

It's also fun to do some fixie skids on downhill side.

I never know what the best part will be when I leave. It could be...
Watching a pair of hawks being chased by a pair of crows
Seeing a wild turkey with nearly a dozen young'uns
Finding a thrown away bike to take home and fix up
Beautiful weather
Feeling smug and tough about being out in bad weather
Ice on the pond
Fall colors
Feeling great on the 'big' hill
Personal best time
Relaxed lollygagging
Meeting another commuter and having a pleasant conversation
Sunrise or sunset
Enjoying a new piece of gear
Who knows what it will be tonight:)

Oh and I forgot to mention, rainbows and merino wool kittens

That's easy, crossing Church Avenue on the way home and entering Ditmas Park. It's the name of the neighborhood and not a park, but it is full of stately Victorian homes, trees, grass and porches right in the middle of Brooklyn. It also happens to be where I live. After riding through Manhattan and Brooklyn (pretty nice in the rest of Bklyn too) I'm always relieved to enter the 'hood. It is particularly nice in the spring when everything is blooming, and the fall for the colors.

Hard to choose. I'll have to go with seeing a full moon rising above our nation's capital from across the Potomac River with the monuments lit up in the foreground.

At the right time of year, riding past the hop processing shed. I like the smell.

There's no part of my commute that makes me grin from ear to ear, but there are parts I definitely enjoy. The bike path that leads into town goes past a beautiful waterway, the Kedron Brook. It's home to ducks, waterhens, turtles, plenty of birds and possums and fruitbats. I love my morning commute. In the spring, I get to see baby duckies! And I also get chased by protective daddy ducks! But it's alllll good. In summer, it's still light out at night when I come home. I get to see the sunset. It's beautiful.

Max

Mine by far is the house where the hot looking woman sunbathes on her deck naked in the summer. :P

There's a section of my commute...about 3 miles that parallels a creek. It always has a nice, calming sound going on when I pass by. The road is well paved and smooth. It's especially nice on the way home as it's only a few miles from my house.

the mornings that i do not want to tackle the patullo bridge (some mornings are really treacherous), when i leave my house in the morning, the hill straight down to the skytrain station is a great section. okay - i have to check my brakes every morning before i start the decline, but all systems go means a fantastic wake up rush all the way to the station. luckily there is no uphill on the home commute since i will ride to the next station and that is a downhill cruise back home.

There is a massive hill about 1 mile away from my work that I fly down at 8:10am. I have a short climb to the top, and then I get in the drops and make myself as aero as possible. I usually hit between 35-37mph and coast to the next stop light. The only problem is there is a light at the end of the hill that is red at times, which should be a crime. There is only one better way (NC-17 rating) to wake up in the morning.

The scenic route. Do you speed up to impress or slow down to digest the view? :)

There are a lot of us forgetting the rainbows and merino kittens now!

My favorite part has got to be some residential side streets with lots of large shade trees on either side of the street. I'm warmed up along there regardless of which direction I'm going, and I sometimes will stop at a friends house along the way.

I have about a 1/2 mile stretch of single lane road with big shade trees on either side. On the north side of the road is a corn/bean field, on the south side of the road are homes with really big yards (never looked into it, but those homes must cost a fortune, like $1.5MM and up). When the sun is coming up just right and especially when there is a little mist in the air, this stretch of road is something every photographer would want to pull off/set up/and shoot away. It is really beautiful. The sun filters through the trees and the mist like God's grace. Hard to explain.

Most of the time I am rolling through there before the sun comes up. But when I have a chance to experience it, I often catch my self saying "wow, this is worth all of the cold I will endure for riding all season". It's that good.

There's a section of neighborhoods I go through on the way into ( but not home from ) work that's really nice. Big gardens, old houses, and nice ambiance, plus it's at the top of my last climb. I enjoy this section quite a bit.

I want to share another part of my commute.

I drop down into a lower area and the temp drops at least 10 degrees. Kind of crazy for a Chicago area place, but that is the facts. I head north and to my left (the west) there is an ag field that stretches out throughout this lower "valley" area. This is where my shadow is cast big and long across the road and into the field. It is really cool seeing my legs pumping away at the cranks, panniers in tow, full body just sailing along. I get to a turnoff soon and have to adjust my ride, but that short distance where the orange glow is casting my riding shadow against the frost covered ground, that is something I would like to capture for others.

Coming into my neighborhood, I pass by my local park. It's nice to see folks recreating.

That's much better than rainbows and wool kittens or whatever....

My worst part (since I missed that thread and don't want to create a zombie thread) is getting to work.

My best part is getting to my destination in one piece and seeing my kids when I get home.

There is a short stretch of road right before I get to the train station after work. It is by far, the best part of my commute as it put a smile on my face almost everyday. I get to see another bicyclist commuter in that stretch. He is only about 10 years old and he ride by himself on a bike that is much larger than he but has plenty of room for growth. He had a rack with his backpack and books. I can tell he is very much into the bicycle commute thing by the the expression on his face. I see a better future for bicyclist commuter paved by him everytime I see him. :)

I love the two-to-three mile section of my commute that involves a bike lane.

I like when I see people cross the street and I can smile at them.

I also like when I encounter homeless people and they say something crazy to me. It would scare me if I was on foot, and I wouldn't get to notice it if I was in a car. On a bike, I'm moving just fast enough to where it makes me smile. (I'm not happy that they're homeless; some of the things this lady does just makes me smile. I like her)